This is a subject that most of us normally associate with overseas where it has been instrumental in making huge improvements in people’s lives all over Africa, South America and in Asia, indeed last Sunday’s Observer Food Magazine had a great article on the Ugandan Fairtrade Coffee industry (see here: http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/drink/story/0,,2286157,00.html ).

There is, however, a need for a similar system here in the UK to ensure that our farmers are protected and get a fair price for their produce and are encouraged to continue growing high quality local produce for us to use.  Our fruit and vegetable supplier, Bristol Fruit Sales, has developed its own brand called “Growfair” to do just this.  We have been buying asparagus and strawberries from them under this scheme this spring and summer and we are looking forwards to seeing what else is available later in the season.

I have found their web site but as yet they seem to have been concentrating on getting the food out of the fields!  More information will be available here soon: http://www.growfair.co.uk/ .

I have come across a few people recently who have been using the Cornish language, I must admit not conversationally but it is good to see it used.  The main language groups have now agreed on a common form so we should see more people learning this traditional language.  It will take a long time for us to get to the level of the Welsh but it is something to aim for.

From starting out just discovering what “Happy Christmas” is in Cornish I have picked up a few phrases myself and do exchange greetings in Cornish with a few people.  I must admit that most of these people are newcomers to Cornwall but at least there is some interest.

While I was at the Royal Cornwall Show I went into the county council exhibition with my Red Cross colleague and found the Cornish Language stand:  my colleague is Cornish but doesn’t know any of the language so I told him one of my favourite phrases to say to the staff ( no, I didn’t set him up with something rude!).  We both had a chat with them and even got some Cornish stickers.  Mine was the word for “cool” so I managed to use this when setting up our latest offer on the web site so when you have a look you will understand what “Koeth Kernow” means.

This also appeals to my literary tendencies with the alliteration, thankfully we didn’t have a third K to put in as an offer shortened to KKK would not have won us many friends!

Have a look at this web site and learn some Cornish before your next visit:  http://www.cornish-language.org/english/phrasebook.asp we’ll see how much of a conversation we can have!